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As I compose this blog, our nation is transfixed by the crisis occurring in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalist domestic terrorists were protesting; lives were lost, people were injured, and divisions among people in our nation seem (to me) to have only widened.

Wiser and more prominent voices have addressed these events better than I could (but I still have something to say at the end of this post).

In the meantime, I have had several experiences this week — opportunities to pay some social media love forward and opportunities to benefit from people’s generosity (such as the thread Berrak created in LinkedIn for those of us looking for jobs) — and want to share those with you. I call it the “grab bag.”

A vendor who deserves some attention

My sweet and incredible friend Rachel asked us to follow her brother-in-law, Jordan (a/k/a watwoodshop), on Instagram. He makes beautiful cutting boards like this one. According to his Instagram profile, they are $40 and you order by DMing him on Instagram.

Here’s what to do: Follow Jordan’s WatWoodShop on Instagram by clicking here.

A REALLY cute dog who needs followers

I have helped promote Melissa Lamson’s work for the past few years through my responsibilities with Weaving Influence. We were talking the other day about her irresistibly adorable French bulldog, Rocky (bluefrenchierocky), and how Rocky needs more followers on Instagram (okay, to be specific, she wants Rocky to have more followers on Instagram. It’s almost as though she speaks for him!). Here he is:

A fun local Twitter account that issued a challenge

I am admittedly more of a wine person than a beer person BUT I am a sucker for people who love with they do and enjoy making our community a more fun place. As soon as TLHBeerSociety reached 300 followers and challenged the Twitterverse to help get them to 400, I was in!

Here’s what to do: Follow TLH Beer Society on Twitter by clicking here.

An opportunity to commit an act of kindness and help the You Matter Marathon

The You Matter Marathon, where participants share a “you matter” card each day in November, is entering its second year (here’s a look back at last year). The You Matter Marathon has big plans to distribute a million “you matter” cards in November 2017.

The YMM is one of the causes being featured by the Kind Foundation this month. If it earn the most “votes” (votes are generated by people doing acts of kindness), it will be rewarded with $10,000! (printing and postage add up when the goal is a million cards.)

Here’s what to do: Do an act of kindness and help the You Matter Marathon earn a vote; click here for details.

An opportunity to support a worthy candidate for political office

My incredible friend Nicolette is running for Orange County Commission District 4. It’s a non-partisan seat. She’s running (in my opinion) for all the right reasons, but a campaign for public office is neither low-stress nor low-budget.

Here’s what to do: If you live in Nicolette’s district (Orange County District 4), vote for her (or at least vote). Whether or not you live in the district, use this link to donate if you are so inclined. (AND, if you are local to me in Tallahassee, support the Women Can Run event — I know they would appreciate scholarship donations too.)

I know some MidLifers Who Need Millennials and Vice Versa

I am excited to be participating in the Bridging the Gap campaign this fall; the campaign pairs Midlife women with Millennial women in an effort to “bring the ‘over the hill’ wall down.” Each partner will do a blog post featuring the other. I have a feeling lots of new friendships will be forged!

Here’s what to do: I am in preliminary discussions with two millennial bloggers to be my partner, but I am not positive either will pan out. If you are a millennial blogger (you have to have a blog and a public Instagram account) interested in participating, let me know! (Even if I have a partner already, I am happy to try to introduce you to a midlife blogger in search of a partner.)

My Personal Requests

Although I always say I blog to flex my writing muscle, I’d be lying if I said comments don’t matter! I was so fascinated by the story of Moss H. Kendrix, who I blogged about recently, and would love to get a few more eyes on it (and comments!). Here’s the link.

I am also still searching for additional part-time work (from 1:00 until (?) every day). It might be virtual, it might be somewhere in Tallahasssee. It might be writing/editing, it might be something completely different (I love providing stellar customer service). If you have any leads, send them my way! (And thank you to those who already have.) Here’s a link with more info.

What’s In It For You?

My main hope is that some deserving people (and dogs!) get followed, some worthy causes supported. To up the ante on that, I’ll treat one of you to coffee at Starbucks (via a $5 gift code)! Honor system — you don’t have to tell me who/what you supported, just that you did. You can also earn an entry by leaving a comment with your recommendation for who/what my readers and I should follow/support.

Back to Charlottesville, Unfortunately

I do believe that there are voices more wise and prominent than mine, as I said in this post’s introduction, BUT here’s what I want to say:

White privilege and racism are real and alive in our country today. I’ve written about white privilege here and how my views about how #BlackLivesMatter evolved here.

As I said on my Facebook wall earlier (slightly modified here), the actions we can take in response to racism are myriad. Some of them DO involve public statements, speeches, blogs, and overtures. Others involve much more tiny, yet influential, choices: speaking up when you’re in a conversation and someone says something that denigrates another race/gender/status, giving $5 or 5 minutes to a cause (such as Being Black at School or Equality Florida) that helps support the very difficult work of overcoming racism (and yes, dismantling the inequities that white privilege has created).

Lacking any blog post ideas this week that really excited me, I searched for prompt ideas.

These 365 creative writing prompts from ThinkWritten came to the rescue. I decided to do number 68: “Random Wikipedia Article: Go to Wikipedia and click on Random Article … write about whatever the page you get,” mashed up with Kat Bouska’s “write a blog post inspired by the word: island.”

My Random Wikipedia Article

I have to wonder how “random” this is. Is it possible Wikipedia has some kind of algorithm? Maybe I should have done my search from an incognito window because the entry I selected for me was a) about public relations (a professional interest of mine) and b) about one of the first black pioneers in advertising (I’ve been writing about race lately here and here.)

But I’ll give Wikipedia the benefit of the doubt, and accept that the entry I received was serendipitous. Meet my subject, Moss H. Kendrix.

Moss H. Kendrix Source: Wikipedia

Who Was Moss H. Kendrix?

Moss H. Kendrix was a creator — of organizations, concepts, observances — to name a few. After reading about his life and legacy, I would add that he created something intangible but revolutionary: entirely new ways for institutions who had decided people should be fit into rigidly defined categories to see beyond walls that had been constructed and assumptions that had been made.

A native of Atlanta, Kendrix studied journalism at Morehouse College, where he co-founded Phi Delta Delta, the first African-American student journalism society, sometime in the late 1930s.

Although he was accepted into law school (it’s unclear from my research how long he attended law school), he was drafted into the Army. Related to his military service, he became public relations director in 1944 for the Republic of Liberia’s centennial celebration. This work hooked him on a career in public relations.

More Things Moss Kendrix Created

After his military service ended, Kendrix created his agency, The Moss Kendrix Organization. I love the organization’s tagline, which was apparently also Kendrix’s personal motto:

What The Public Thinks Counts!

(I can only imagine how Kendrix would handle the way we members of the public share our thoughts via floods of tweets and other social media comments, and how that would be “counted” by him.)

Moss hosted (and created, I think) the Profiles of our Times radio show on WWDC.

Moss helped create the National Association of Market Developers, which became the National Alliance of Market Developers (neither organization seems to be active right now, but they made a difference in their times). Here’s a bit of the organization’s history.

The Father of Black PR

Kendrix made a difference in public relations and became what Global Social Media News called the “Father of Black PR” because he was one of the first public relations professionals to help companies see the value of African-American buying power as well as the potential of the community to provide skilled employees to the labor market. This can’t have been easy in the late 1940s.

Most notably, Kendrix approached Coca-Cola, which was not a popular beverage in the African-American community, and presented a plan to market directly to that demographic, in a customized way. Here’s an example:

Source: PRVisionaries.com

You can learn more in this article. Kendrix’s efforts had ripple effects for Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans and other minorities.

Semantics Matter

In this PRVisionaries profile, there is a fascinating feature about the National Press Club’s meeting with President John F. Kennedy in 1961 when Kennedy invited club members (including Kendrix) to the White House because he was unable to attend their annual awards luncheon. Here’s the paragraph that jumped out at me:

At the Press Institute a panel on the subject “Africa — Challenge to Mass Media,” concluded that the matter of semantics in the communication of concepts is one of the major problems confronting American mass media today.

Early 1960s or 2017: isn’t the matter of semantics in the communication of concepts still a major problem confronting American mass media today? I would argue that the issue of semantics certainly still exists, but optics have taken on an equally challenging role (although I know Kendrix’s story is founded in his relationship with Coca-Cola, I can’t help thinking how he could have been a voice of reason in the conference room where the disastrous Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad was conceived).

Kendrix’s Final Chapter

Kendrix died in December 1989. I wondered as I researched his story if his children have carried on his legacy at all. His oldest son, Moss Kendrix, Jr., retired from the Air Force and shares his thoughts on his father here. I couldn’t locate any information regarding his other son, Alan Kendrix.

There’s no doubt in my mind, though, that his legacy lives on. College students such as Tre Lamar are learning about him and taking those lessons into PR’s future. (Read Lamar’s Odyssey piece, The Moss H. Kendrix story, here.)

Which is the Island and Which is the Mainland?

Obviously, one Wikipedia article and fifteen minutes worth of research can hardly give a comprehensive picture of an individual. Conversely, I learned so much about a PR legend who is new to me.

I imagined, reading his story and learning about his life, how isolated he may have felt as he tried to convey to white advertising executives the idea that black people held potential to help Coca Cola (and other products) gain market share, when desegregation was still being fought for and long before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 reinforced their right to vote.

But I have to wonder if it was the other way around and “the establishment” was the entity isolated, surrounded by oceans of ignorance and needing to be rescued (although, to be a bit cynical, the industry probably grew more accepting once they realized the financial potential of the additional customers).

I feel like Kendrix was one of the first lifeboats giving these advertisers a chance to escape the island of assumption.